Dual Empire
The Dual Empire is the result of the personal union of the Savirai and Nahari crowns following the Savirai conquest of the Nahari Empire in 306 SR by the Emperor Qasaarai I. It has been ruled since by an unbroken line of Savirai monarchs since its inception. The Empire is remarkable for being birthplace of the second Aitah, and the first state in the world to adopt Eastern Aitahism. Since the Dual Empire's conversion to the faith of the goddess, it has exercised significant influence on the East through both military conquest and peaceful evangelism of its new faith. =History= Over the course of many generations which exist mainly in oral tradition, the House of Savirai from their citadel of Gurach united the myriad of clans on the Face of the Moon under their banner. They accumulated an impressive amount of wealth off the caravan trade routes running through the desert, enforced by a strong military of Moon-Lord fielded cavalry and camelry. In 290 SR, the Nahari Empire, confident after a century of military success and conquest, most notably under General Ruman the Great, decided to embark on an invasion of the Leunan Empire in an attempt to seize the lucrative trade through the Leunan Straits. The naval invasion was a colossal failure, but the war continued on desultorily for sixteen years, draining the Nahari treasuries and exhausting its armies. Sensing weakness, Qasaarai I, Ninth Emperor of the House of Savirai, called his banners and swept south with all his force. The Nahari, who were hitherto unaware of the political unity of the desert clansmen to their north, were utterly unprepared and their armies were swept aside by the desert storm. The male line of the old Nahari imperial house was extinguished, and Qasaarai crowned himself the first Emperor of the Dual Empires Savirai and Nahari in 307 SR, moving the capital of his administration to the hitherto nondescript Nahari inland city of Hrn. The magnates of the major Nahari cities on the Kbrilma Sea coast swore allegiance to the new emperor, and the core of the old empire survived mostly intact, albeit with a foreign liege. The successors of Qasaarai I, however, did not share his brilliance. The various magnates of the old Nahari Empire exerted their independence, influencing the court at Hrn more than the succeeding Emperors could influence them. To the consternation of the polytheistic and Maninist moon clans of the north, the royal family became increasingly influenced by the great aristocratic Nahari families and their culture, eventually converting wholesale to the southern religion of Indagahor. Under the Fourth Emperor Khara I, the Dual Empire was exposed to a rude awakening when the maritime and militant Opulensi Empire attacked in 351 SR and seized Zirais, and burning Tesach and Aran on the Kbrilma coast. With his weak control of the magnates and lack of respect from the moon-clans, the Emperor failed to respond in force and Zirais was lost to the Opulensi, seemingly for good. After this, the Empire managed a series of reforms which mostly notably would see the heirs to the throne fostered back at the traditional capital of Gurach, but had very limited practical effects on the empire. Successive attempts to retake Zirais, sometimes in alliance with the Leunan Empire, ended in failure. The Empire continued desultorily on this path until the birth of the goddess Aitah in 483 SR. For more of the history of the now-dominant religion of the Dual Empire, see Cult of the Goddess#History. The civil war that re-unified the disparate elements of the Empire are also documented there. The thirty year reign of the Emperor Qasaarai IV would mark a new golden age for the empire of centralization and expansion, as a new bureaucracy was incorporated in Hrn, and the Empire conquered the Kingdom of Astria, the chiefdom of the Tazari, the Roshate of Occara, and the Peko River Valley, formerly ruled by the Khivani Roshate. The Goddess Aitah named him the Flamebearer of her Faith, charging him with protection of all those who sought salvation from her grace. Upon the Emperor's death, his four year old son Khatai was crowned Emperor in Hrn, but his regency was filled by the ambitious widow of Qasaarai IV, Ximihar, in the south, and the Emperor's younger brother Qasra in the north. Under Ximihar's guidance, the Empire participated in the War of the Triple Alliance, finally taking revenge on the Opulensi Empire for century old grievances and reclaiming the old Nahari territory of Zirais. Khatai I and the Aitah In 530 SR, the now 14 year old Khatai ascended to power after completing the traditional Savirai coming of age ritual on the Face of the Moon. He turned the focus of the empire north, pledging to aid the Tyrant of Tarena, who was now beset by Maninist Gallasan forces after his conversion to the Cult of the Goddess. A prolonged campaign saw him grow up almost literally in the saddle, raiding the outskirts of the League of Gallasa during the War of the Empty Throne. The Savirai scored numerous successes on the battlefield, but would eventually meet with a stalemate after the intervention of the Karapeshai Exatai. Perhaps the most notable event to come out of the war was Khatai's marriage. In the far north, political intrigue among the nobility of Cyve had led to the imprisonment of one Aelona cuCyve, the young granddaughter of Fulwarc II. She fled south, eventually reaching the forces of Khatai in central Gallat. Presented with a red cloak by Khatai after a vision, his army quickly recognized the signs that she was in fact a new-found incarnation of the Aitah. Becoming smitten with his goddess and sworn to protect her anyway, Khatai asked for her hand in marriage, and they were duly wed while still on campaign. A glorious honeymoon period saw both healthy and happy, but eventually Aelona was sent back to Gurach to birth Khatai's children. Simultaneously, Khatai's battlefield successes petered out, and the Aitahist cause faltered. An influx of Satar troops from across the Kern Sea meant the Savirai advantage in numbers would be nullified, and an assault by Arto Rutarri and Fulwarc II of Cyve (who now, ironically, fought his own grandson-in-law) took the Tarenan capital at Pamala. With enemies on all sides, Khatai still managed to keep his army intact and fighting well, but would be assassinated by agents of the Wolves of the Sable in 553 SR. His death would lead to the fall in grace of Aelona as well; the northern empress was forced to flee from the Face of the Moon into the north with her daughter, Kintyra, later the Fifth Aitah. Nevertheless, her son Qasaarai V would be crowned by a faction of local nobility (her other son, Qasra, had vanished into the desert). By now, it had become clear that the Empire had lost this round, and Qasaarai's agents made peace with the Satar, promising the restoration of the League of Gallasa, with terms promising religious toleration. But at the same time, an invasion by the hated Opulensi in the south had devastated huge parts of the Nahari half of the Empire. A protracted war would follow, and the Empire would only be rescued by the civil war that raged within the Opulensi, culminating in the fall of that Empire and its replacement by the Daharai; the resultant Republic of the Daharai proved much more amenable to negotiation. Decline and Fall Qasaarai's reign would proceed mostly quietly from now on, but eventually he would attack in concert with First-Lerai of the Holy Moti Empire in a gigantic attempt to bring down the Karapeshai and their allies on multiple fronts. The Savirai strike was aimed primarily at Gallat, and stormed through the usual barriers to invasion. At the same time, Qasaarai had reached a rapprochement with his sister in the far north, and a vast Aitahist crusade under the banner of Kintyra attacked the Gallatenes in the flank and reached Gallasa itself, burning the city to the ground and immolating the High Ward. This marked the turning point of the region's history. In the chaos that followed, the Gallatenes rallied behind a rising star in the military, Altaro Javan. Claiming the title of Halyr, Altaro reformed the Gallatene state into the Halyrate of Gallat, retraining its armies along Accan lines, bringing in an infusion of Karapeshai cash, and crafting a bold plan that set the Aitahist allies on their heels and drove them from Gallat itself. What no one could have predicted was the unbridled success of that campaign, which snowballed into the march that would come to be known as the Peregrination, an attack that encircled the entire Dual Empire, killing Qasaarai and smashing every power center the Empire had. In less than a decade, the Empire had been brought to its knees. A coalition of Maninist and disloyal Aitahist rebels in the northern Face of the Moon formed the Third Savirai Empire, while the Nahari nobility swore allegiance to Altaro Javan, buying into promises of greater autonomy. In the east, Qasaarai's brother Qasra apparently resurfaced (though this man was of the wrong age to be Qasra, and whispers would claim that he was in fact an impostor) and founded the Qasrai Empire. In a few years, Altaro's lieutenants would mop up the few Savirai remnants in the south, and the Peko Valley would join the last southern Aitahist state remaining, the Farubaida o Caroha. The Dual Empire's time was over. =Government= Although the Dual Empire boasts a growing bureaucratic wing at Hrn, the vast majority of the realm remains administered by hereditary nobility bound to the imperium by the traditional Savirai law that emphasizes an exchange of mutual obligations between a liege and his vassals. The Savirai Emperor rules as an absolute monarch, answerable only to the law of obligation toward his vassals, and advised by an appointed council. On the Face of the Moon, few settled holdings exist outside of the immediate vicinity of Her Tear. Most of the Savirai Moon-Lords trace their ancestral lineage to the old nobility of Vana, but centuries of expansion and militarization has changed them into a class of warrior-aristocracy who collect incomes determined by imperial law from trade routes running over the Face, supplemented by plunder and new holdings gained through war. These Moon-Lords are the head of clan-based units, which include both his extended blood relatives and warriors and bondservants which owe obligation to them. A few of the Moon-Lords operate quarries and mines on the Haidali, or Far Rim Mountains, which supply the south with stones and metals. The obligations between the Moon-Lords and the Imperium has a long history, although that does not always preclude rebellion by ambitious or otherwise angered lords, as seen during the waning period of the Aitahist Dawn. On the Nahari Kbrilma Coast, the Savirai Emperors generally left the system of powerful aristocratic governor-magnates and merchant guilds unchecked, although they gradually imposed taxation reforms during times of imperial strength. After the AItahist Dawn, which saw many of the more ambitious magnates rising up and subsequently culled in a failed rebellion, some in the name of the old Nahari Empire, the majority of the magnates are either allied or placated to the imperium. The Peko River Valley has the largest variety in land assignment. Due to the recalcitrance of the Khivani Nahsjad lords, who preferred to fight to the last rather than submit to the Imperium and its foreign goddess, the old hierarchy was uncharacteristically replaced rather than modified as the Savirai prefer. Although some elements of the Triluin and Pekorovan urban administration were incorporated and retained under the bureaucratic structure in Hrn, a great bulk of the lands were parceled out to Moon-Lords or junior members of the Nahari magnates, or kept by the Imperial House. The Imperium also includes quite recently a number of sub-kings which exist outside this structure, including the Kingdom of Astria, the Kingdom of Tarena, the Occaran Roshate, and until recently, the Tazari chiefdom. These kings have domestic autonomy to do as they please within their domains, as long as they follow the Savirai conception of obligation, both to the Emperor and to their leal subjects. Generally, the former includes the marshaling of troops when the Imperium is at war, while the latter falls under the broad definition of competent and just governance. =Culture= =Religion= Category:Savirai Category:Historical Countries Category:Athis